The Society for the Investigation of Spectral Phenomena
The Vigil Against the Cathedral's Hidden Scrivener
Arundel Cathedral, church, Arundel, West Sussex
I.Background & History
The Cathedral Church of Our Lady and St Philip Howard stands in Arundel, West Sussex. It was dedicated in 1873 as the Catholic parish church of Arundel, and in 1965, at the foundation of the Diocese of Arundel and Brighton, it became a Roman Catholic cathedral and the seat of the Bishop of Arundel and Brighton.
Historic England classifies the building as Grade I listed. It stands in close company with other religious sites of the town, among them the Fitzalan Chapel, the site of Arundel Priory, and the remembered ground of the Blackfriars, within sight of the castle.
Source: Arundel Cathedral, Wikipedia
II.The Entity
The Ink-Handed Sacristan
A small green-white flame, no larger than a candle's, seen drifting at the height of a seated man's hands along the nave and the carved choir. Where it hovers, those nearby feel their fingers grow warm and a pen or nail seems to find its way into their grasp. Within the flame, those who have dared to look say they perceived two cupped hands, stained black to the wrist, moving as though writing.
Assessment of Peril
Class III: Hostile
It has harmed no one directly, but all who write under its influence lose days of memory, and three watchers are recorded as never quite themselves thereafter. Its attention, once drawn, is not easily turned aside.
III.The Account
HOUR OF NINE. The Society's two officers, Mr. Lucan Pryor and the Recording Secretary, took their places in the nave on the night of the 14th of November, 1931, at the invitation of a canon who asked that his name be withheld. The matter before us was this: from the autumn of 1924 the clergy and the cleaners of the church had found, written in pencil on hymn boards, in the margins of the registers, and once scratched into the oak of a confessional, the same sentence, "HE HAS NOT YET FINISHED THE LIST." Nobody admitted to the writing. Each hand was different, and each, on comparison, matched the hand of some person long dead whose name stood in the parish books. The nave was cold and smelt of wax. Mr. Pryor remarked that the stone seemed to be listening. This was entered at the time as an idle observation.
HOUR OF MIDNIGHT. A small green-white flame was observed at the far end of the choir at four minutes past twelve. It travelled the length of the sanctuary at the height of a seated man's hands, and where it passed the candles bent toward it as flowers toward a window. Mr. Pryor remained seated and was seen to take up his notebook. The Secretary, at the time, noted only that the flame paused beside him. When the Secretary looked down at his own page, he found it already covered, in a copperplate not his own, with the names of every person who had ever sat a vigil in that building, in order of their dying. Several of the names were still living.
IV.Recorded Manifestations
- ✦A sentence in pencil or chisel, always the same, found in a handwriting matching that of a person long dead.
- ✦A green-white flame at the height of a seated man's hands, moving along the choir at night.
- ✦Warmth in the fingers of anyone sitting still for long, followed by an urge to hold a pen.
- ✦Candle flames leaning toward a point in the empty air.
- ✦Names in unfamiliar copperplate on a watcher's page, including some still living.
- ✦Ink on the hands of those who have been in the church at night, which will not wash off for three days.
Testimony of Witnesses
“"I came in at six and the hymn boards were all of them wrote upon, in the one sentence, and in my late husband's hand, who has lain at Tortington these eleven years."”
“"I sat through the night as a sceptic. By morning I had filled a ledger, and I do not remember the hour I took up the pen, and I will not sit there again."”
“"A small light, sir, low down, where a man might hold a book. It kept to the dark places and it was always busy."”
V.Rite of Expulsion
Difficulty: Perilous
Requisites
- ☐A new pencil, unsharpened
- ☐A sheet of blank foolscap, never written upon
- ☐A bowl of plain water
- ☐A candle of unbleached wax
- ☐A spool of black thread
The Rite
- I.1. Enter the nave at eleven at night and sit alone in the third pew from the font, with the candle unlit.
- II.2. Place the foolscap on the knee and the pencil upon it, and touch neither until the clock strikes twelve.
- III.3. At the stroke, light the candle and say aloud the name of the person who first bade you come.
- IV.4. When the flame appears, do not look at it. Dip the fingers in the water and bind the pencil to the paper with the black thread.
- V.5. Say, "The list is closed," three times without pause.
- VI.6. Extinguish the candle with wet fingers and leave by the west door without turning.
- VII.7. Do not write anything, not even your name, until sunrise.
Caution. The last person who took up the pencil during the rite, a curate of the diocese, was found at dawn writing his own death-date upon the altar rail. He lived to see the date, and the Society records that it was kept.
VI.Hauntings of the Surrounding District
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Arundel Castle · Castle · 0.2 miles
The Stair-Sweeper of the Barbican, spectre. A grey figure sweeps the same worn step each dusk, and those who stop to watch find soot on their own shoes the following morning.
Arundel Blackfriars · Abbey · 0.3 miles
The Mute Almsmen, phantom procession. Seven hooded figures cross the old friary ground without sound, and the number of those who follow them is never the number who set out.
Arundel Priory · Church · a few paces
The Prior's Bell-Founder, revenant. A stooped man in a leather apron is seen kneeling where the priory stood, listening to the earth as one might listen at a chest.
Fitzalan Chapel · Church · 0.1 miles
The Veiled Widow of the Vault, white lady. A woman in grey lace lays flowers at the iron gate each Michaelmas, and the flowers are always freshly cut and wet with a grave's cold dew.
Trinity Congregational Church · Church · 0.2 miles
The Hymnal Thrower, poltergeist. Books fall from the gallery rail in perfect silence, always open at the same page, and always at the feet of a stranger.
Arundel and District Hospital · Hospital · 0.3 miles
The Night Ward Sister, unclassified entity. A pale shape moves from bed to bed after midnight, and those it pauses beside are said to be discharged by morning.
Slayer's Slab · Tomb · 1.6 miles
The Pale Sow of the Downs, spectral animal. A white beast is seen rooting near the stone at twilight, and it lifts its head with a face that is almost a man's.
Poling Preceptory · Templar Preceptory · 2.2 miles
The Kneeling Knight of Poling, headless apparition. A mailed figure kneels in the preceptory field at dusk, and horses refuse to cross the place where his head should be turned.
Lyminster Priory · Abbey · 1.6 miles
The Borrowed Cantor, possession. A nun is said to rise at night and sing in a voice not her own, in a tongue no one in the house has been taught.
South Marsh Mill · Old Mill · 0.6 miles
The Miller's Grey Follower, phantom hound. A lean hound with flour-white flanks pads behind lone walkers on the marsh path and is never seen to cast a shadow.
St Mary Magdalene's Church · Church · 1.6 miles
The Lantern-Lender, will-o'-the-wisp. A lamp-light offers itself to travellers on the lane at night, and those who take it are found far from any road at dawn.
St Mary the Virgin's Church · Church · 2.2 miles
The Bellringer's Widow, spectre. A woman in black stands in the tower at the midnight hour with her hand upon a rope that is never seen to move.
St Nicholas Church · Church · 2.5 miles
The Furrow-Walker, revenant. A farm labourer crosses the churchyard each harvest eve, and the graves he passes are found disturbed at first light.
St Mary's Church · Church · 2.9 miles
The Lych-Gate Raven, spectral animal. A great black bird sits upon the gate and speaks the names of the dying a week before they are called.
Amberley Castle · Castle · 3.8 miles
The Moat Mourners, phantom procession. A muffled train of torch-bearers crosses the drawbridge at dead of night, and the torches cast no light upon the ground.
